


The Avenger's Bride (with apologies to William Goldman)

by steverogersandpeggycarter



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Princess Bride - William Goldman
Genre: F/M, just for fun, princess bride crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:33:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25445449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steverogersandpeggycarter/pseuds/steverogersandpeggycarter
Summary: Peggy is Buttercup and Steve Rogers is Westley in this Avengers reimagining of the Princess Bride.
Relationships: Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers
Comments: 9
Kudos: 32
Collections: Steggy Week





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Peggy was raised on a small army base in the country of Florin. Her favorite pastimes were assembling rifles and tormenting the undersized soldier that worked there. His name was Steve Rogers, but she never called him that.

Nothing gave Peggy as much pleasure as ordering Steve around.

“Soldier,” she would say, “do fifty push-ups!”

“I can do this all day,” Steve huffed and puffed, attempting to do push-ups.

“I can do this all day” was all he ever said to her.

One day Peggy said to Steve, “Soldier, fetch me the flag from the top of that flagpole.” He looked at her with his tired blue eyes, and something moved her to add, “Please.”

Steve pulled out the support pin from the bottom of the flagpole and watched it fall over. He handed her the flag. “I can do this all day.”

That day, she was amazed to discover that when he was saying, “I can do this all day,” what he meant was, “I love you.” 

And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved him back. A grenade appeared out of nowhere, and Peggy ran to jump on it. Steve made it ahead of her. “Get away!” he shouted. “I can do this all day! Get back!”

It was a dummy grenade. “Is this a test?” Steve asked, slowly sitting up.

Peggy ran over to where he was still sitting confused on the ground and kissed him. He kissed her back.

Then Steve had to go fight a guy named Red Skull. So he packed his few belongings and left the Army base to try to save a lot of people across the sea. It was a very emotional time for Peggy.

They were saying goodbye. “I fear I’ll never see you again,” Peggy said. 

“Of course you will,” Steve said. “I owe you a dance.”

“But what if something happens to you?” Peggy asked.

“Hear this now,” Steve said, “I will come for you. Eight o’clock, next Saturday, at the Stork Club.”

“But how can you be sure?” Peggy asked. 

“This is true love,” Steve said, with his arms around her. “I can do this all day.”


	2. Chapter 2

Steve didn’t reach his destination. He was captured by the Winter Soldier, who never left captives alive. When Peggy heard the news that Steve was killed, she went into her room and shut the door. And for days, she neither slept nor ate.

“I will never love again,” Peggy said.

Four years later, the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters in Florin City were filled as never before to hear the announcement of the great Alexander Pierce’s co-director-to-be.

Alexander Pierce was a man of incredible power and bearing. He had directed S.H.I.E.L.D. for years. Now he stood at the head of a long table, holding aloft a glass of champagne.

“My people,” he said, “a month from now, S.H.I.E.L.D. will have its third anniversary. On that day, I shall raise to the rank of co-director a woman who was once a common agent like yourselves—but perhaps you will not find her common now. Would you like to meet her?”

“Yes,” the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. all chorused.

In a doorway, Peggy appeared, stunning in a bright red hat and a smart navy suit.

“My people,” Alexander Pierce said, “Agent Peggy Carter!”

Peggy’s emptiness consumed her. Although the politics of the SSR and S.H.I.E.L.D. were such that Peggy could not refuse the job with Alexander Pierce without jeopardizing her career, she did not love working with him.

Despite Pierce’s reassurance that she would grow to love the job, the only joy she found was in her daily jaunt across the countryside to visit her friends the Jarvises.

She was in a deserted glen one fine afternoon when she heard a voice.

“A word, my lady?”

There were three men standing next to the road where Peggy was walking. The first was a man with long black slicked-back hair and green and black robes. He wore a helmet with horns. He was an Asgardian named Loki. The second man, whose name was Tony Stark, had brown hair and a beard, and he wore a suit made of iron. The third man was huge and green and was known as the Hulk. All three had strangely glittering blue eyes.

“We are but poor, lost superheroes,” Loki said. “Is there a city nearby for us to save?”

“There is nothing nearby; not for miles,” Peggy said, wishing she had brought pepper spray.

Loki smiled. “Then there will be no one to hear you scream.” 

Peggy punched him in the face. Almost before she knew it the other two had surrounded her and tied her up. The Hulk swung her over his shoulder and carried her to a small ship waiting in Florin Channel.

In the ship, Peggy glared at her captors, but was quiet, waiting to see what they would do next.

Loki unrolled a large map and pored over it.

“What’s that you’re doing?” Tony asked.

“This is a map of the country of Guilder. They have my scepter, the same scepter that I used to brainwash the two of you. Now that I have kidnapped Agent Peggy Carter, the best spy in Florin, she will be forced to help me sneak into Guilder Castle and steal back my scepter.”

“I just don’t think it’s right, kidnapping an innocent girl,” the Hulk continued.

Loki whirled on him. “Am I going mad, or did the word ‘think’ escape your lips? You were not hired for your brains, you hippopotamic landmass! This brainwashing doesn’t work as well as it should.”

“I agree with Bruce,” Tony said.

Loki’s face turned a dark shade of red. “Oh. The weapons manufacturer, responsible for the deaths of many people, has spoken. What happens to her is not truly your concern. And remember this—never forget this—that when I snuck up on you and brainwashed you, you were so slobbering drunk you couldn’t figure out how to get your own Iron Man suit on!”

The Hulk was moving slowly away, and Loki turned to him. “And you! Angry, brainless, helpless, hopeless—do you want me to send you back to where you were, a gladiator on Sakaar?” His voice had risen to a scream, and he turned away.

Tony Stark turned to the Hulk. “A bit touchy, isn’t he?”

To Peggy’s surprise, the Hulk was shrinking. In less than a minute he was the size of a regular man. He had curly dark hair and a worried expression, and he bustled away to put on some clothes that actually fit him now that he was smaller.

When he came back he grinned at Tony. “Let’s talk about quantum physics. It really annoys him.”

“Right?” Tony said, grinning back. “If someone were able to shrink small enough to enter the quantum realm, all kinds of interesting things might happen. My father said Hank Pym was investigating that before he broke ties with us.”

Loki turned towards them. “Enough of that!”

Tony and Bruce got the boat sailing. “Ever feel like brushing up on advanced calculus?” Tony asked.

“Anytime. I’ll go get the whiteboard.”

Loki began to scream.


	3. Chapter 3

It was late at night. No matter how much she tried, Peggy could barely keep her eyes open. Bruce was guarding her.

Loki was looking into the distance. “We’ll reach the Cliffs by dawn,” he said.

Tony nodded. He was looking over his shoulder. Loki noticed him. 

“Why are you doing that?”

“Making sure nobody’s following us,” Tony said.

“That would be inconceivable,” Loki said, shrugging it off.

Peggy roused herself a little. “Despite what you think,” she said, “S.H.I.E.L.D. will catch you. And when it does, Alexander Pierce will see you all thrown in prison or worse.”

“Of all the people on this boat, Agent,” Loki said, “the one you should be worrying about is yourself. You will do as I say, or you will die.”

Bruce and Tony weren’t paying attention to Loki. They were looking behind the boat.

“Are you sure nobody’s following us?” Tony asked.

“As I told you, it would be absolutely, totally, and in all other ways, inconceivable,” Loki said. “No one in Guilder knows what we’re doing. And no one in Florin could have gotten here so fast, unless they had the Tesseract, which seems unlikely. Out of curiosity, why do you ask?”

“No reason,” Tony said, peering through his Iron Man helmet. “ No reason. It's only, I just happened to look behind us, and J.A.R.V.I.S. informs me that something is there.”

A boat was coming into sight in the distance behind them. It had black sails. 

While Loki gaped in surprise, and Tony and Bruce stared into the darkness, Peggy gathered her wits about her. No one was watching. She jumped off the side of the boat with a splash and started swimming. The water was freezing, but she didn’t care. She was on her way back to Florin. 

Alerted by the splash Peggy had made, Loki shouted. “Go in, get after her!”

“Fine, all right, but you’re gonna owe me even more than you already do,” Tony’s voice said. Peggy heard the sound of some kind of jet propulsion, and before she knew it, she had been lifted out of the water and set back down on the boat, dripping wet. She glared warily at Tony. She hadn’t known his suit could fly.

Meanwhile, the boat was still following them.

“I think he’s getting closer,” Tony said.

“He’s no concern of ours,” Loki said. “Sail on!” He turned to Peggy. “I suppose you think you’re brave, don’t you?”

Peggy stared at him, and her thoughts went back to Steve jumping on that grenade. “Only compared to some,” she said.

Eventually the sun rose, revealing that the ship with black sails was closer than ever.

“Look, he’s right on top of us,” Tony said. “If you think about it, since these are both wind-powered boats (a horribly inefficient method of transportation, if you ask me, which you didn’t), he’s using the same wind we’re using. And his boat is lighter.”

“Whoever he is, he’s too late,” Loki crowed. “See? The Cliffs of Insanity!” He pointed ahead. They were headed towards a massive drop. Florin Channel went over a waterfall, and no boat could survive sailing over it.

“Hard to starboard!” Loki ordered, and Tony raced for the boat’s tiller. 

“Hurry up! Move that thing! Um...that other thing. Move it!” Loki shouted, as Tony worked to take in the sails. He moored the boat safely near the shore, and they all got out, Loki guarding Peggy closely. They walked along the shore towards the cliff over which the waterfall fell.

“We’re safe,” Loki said with a grin as they went along. “Only Tony has the flying ability to get us down this way. He’ll have to walk around for hours until he finds a path down the cliff.”

When they reached the edge of the cliff, Tony began to fly them down one by one, starting with Bruce. Peggy noticed that the ship with black sails had also dropped anchor near Loki’s, and a man in blue was running from the ship toward them. He wore a helmet and carried a brightly-painted shield.

Tony swooped back up to the top of the cliff and picked up Peggy, despite her struggles. 

“Faster!” Loki shouted to him, looking at the man running towards them. 

“I thought I was going faster,” Tony said, swooping down from the cliff with a suddenness that made Peggy’s stomach drop. “I’m carrying three people, and he’s only got himself.”

He deposited Peggy on the ground with Bruce to guard her, and went back to fetch Loki. Even all the way at the bottom of the cliff, Peggy could hear Loki yelling at Tony.

As soon as Loki had reached the ground, he made Bruce and Tony tie Peggy’s hands behind her back, and they all set off along the Guilder frontier. 

Tony looked behind him. “I think he’s going to jump,” he said.

Loki turned around. “Inconceivable!” 

The man in blue reached the edge of the cliff. Without hesitation, he jumped off, the shield on his left arm, arms and legs spread in the air to slow his fall. They all watched, open-mouthed.

The man landed with the shield under him and lay still. Loki smiled evilly. 

The man was moving. He slowly got to his feet.

“He has a very good shield,” Bruce said, staring at it. “It must have absorbed the impact of the fall.”

“He didn’t die?” Loki said. “Inconceivable!”

“You keep using that word,” Tony said. “I don’t think it means what you think it means. You must have learned all your vocabulary in prehistoric Asgard.” He looked at the man in blue again. “He’s running!”

Sure enough, the man was coming towards them, running steadily. 

“Whoever he is, he’s obviously seen us with Agent Carter, and must therefore die,” Loki said. He turned to Tony. “We’ll head straight for the Guilder frontier. Catch up when he’s dead.”

Tony nodded. Loki motioned to Peggy and Bruce to get going.

“You be careful,” Bruce told him. “People that jump without parachutes like that cannot be trusted.”

“I’m waiting!” Loki called. Bruce nodded and hurried after Loki and Peggy.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony fights the man in blue.

Tony watched the man in blue a moment, then paced, limbering up his muscles under the Iron Man suit. He practiced a couple takeoffs and landings. He was a nervous man, and had never been one for waiting around.

The man in blue approached. Tony sized him up as he came. The man was tall and muscular, but Tony’s suit was bigger. And the man in blue didn’t even have a weapon; all he had was a shield. 

Tony waited impatiently for the confrontation. It was taking too long. “Hello there,” Tony called to the man in blue. “I don’t suppose you could speed things up?” 

The man put a little extra speed into his legs. Instead of running straight towards Tony, though, he made as though to pass him. “On your left,” he said, his voice slightly husky.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Tony said, whisking around him in the Iron Man suit and blocking his way. “I’m afraid I’m only waiting around here to kill you.”

The man stopped. “That does put a damper on our relationship,” he said. “Guess I have to go through you to get to the others.” He drew back a few feet and braced himself behind his shield.

Although Tony had been impatient for the man in blue to get there, he wasn’t so impatient to start fighting this man he knew nothing about. Loki’s brainwashing had made Tony obedient to him, but it hadn’t taken away his natural curiosity or his opinions. 

“I don’t mean to pry,” Tony said. “Well, actually, I like prying. So I’ve got a question for you: you don’t by any chance happen to be Hydra? Cut off one head, two more shall take its place?” 

The man in blue looked confused. “Do you always start conversations this way?”

Tony raised his helmet and looked seriously at the man in blue. “My parents were slaughtered by a man sent by Hydra,” he said. “My father was a great inventor. Hydra knew he would never agree to make his inventions for them, so they had him and my mother murdered. I didn’t get along too well with my father, but when I learned how he and my mother had died, I determined to take down Hydra once and for all.” 

“How old were you?” the man in blue asked, relaxing slightly.

“I was twenty-one when they died,” Tony said. “I was in my 40s when I found out what really happened. After that, I dedicated my life to making better Iron Man suits, so that when I finally meet Hydra, I can’t fail. I’ll go up to Hydra and say, ‘I am Iron Man. You killed my parents. Prepare to die.’” 

“You’ve done nothing but make Iron Man suits?” 

“Lately I’ve spent more time trying to find Hydra than working on the suits. It’s been twenty-three years now since the murder. I’m starting to lose confidence that I will ever find them—and I’ve got more confidence than practically anybody else you’ll meet. I just work for Loki and invent stuff to pay the bills. There’s not a lot of money in the revenge business.”

“Well, I sure hope you find them someday,” the man in blue said, sincerity in his eyes under the helmet. He braced himself with the shield again.

“You’re ready, then?” Tony asked.

“ _On va voir_ ,” the man in blue said. “We shall see.”

Tony put down the faceplate of his helmet. “You seem like a decent guy. I hate to kill you,” he said.

“You seem like a decent guy. I hate to die.” 

The fight between the two men was like no fight anybody had ever seen in that part of the world before. The men started by circling each other, throwing punches. Tony’s punches were harder, but when any punches landed on the man in blue’s shield they didn’t do anything. Tony had never seen anything like it. The shield seemed to absorb all the energy from anything that hit it. Tony vaguely remembered his father talking about a material called vibranium that could absorb energy.

The man in blue threw in some kicks as well as punches. Tony had to admit he was good. He’d never had such a hard time fighting someone who wasn’t wearing another Iron Man suit. He got knocked down. Then he got back up and knocked the man in blue down. 

“Does that suit run on some kind of electricity?” the man in blue inquired, interested.

“Yeah.” Tony punched towards the man’s face and hit that shield again. “Vibranium shield?”

“Yeah.” 

They kept fighting. Tony blasted the shield with his repulsors. It didn’t do anything. He tried going for the other man’s head or his legs, but the man was incredibly quick at ducking behind the shield.

“You can’t beat him hand-to-hand,” J.A.R.V.I.S. helpfully informed Tony. 

“Analyze his fight pattern,” Tony snapped. 

“Scanning,” J.A.R.V.I.S. said. Tony waited. The man in blue got in a few good punches. Tony got knocked down again. “Counter-measures ready,” J.A.R.V.I.S. informed him.

“I admit it,” Tony said to the man in blue, “I never thought I would admit this to anybody, but there’s nobody else around here to hear it, so I’m gonna say it: you’re a better fighter than I am.”

“Then why do you sound so cheerful?” the man in blue asked, aiming the edge of his shield at Tony’s neck.

“Because I know something you don’t know,” Tony said. “The suit’s a better fighter than I am.” As the shield came down towards him, Tony’s arm came up and caught it. The suit was fighting for him. It knew the man in blue’s tricks now. “Let’s kick his butt,” Tony said.

For a minute, Tony thought he would. His suit had quicker reflexes than the man in blue now. He was able to wrench the shield away and toss it aside. Without his shield, the man wasn’t so powerful. Tony got in a repulsor blast to the solar plexus, which looked like it hurt. When the man got up again, Tony knocked him down. It looked like the rest of the fight would be short.

“You’re amazing!” the man in blue said, rolling onto his feet again.

“I ought to be, after so many suit revisions,” Tony said modestly. He sent the man flying with another repulsor blast.

“There’s something I ought to tell you,” the man in blue said, scrambling to his feet. Tony rushed towards him.

“And what’s that?” Tony asked.

“When you grow up on the streets of Brooklyn, you learn to fight dirty,” the man said. 

As Tony rushed toward him, he stuck out his foot and tripped him. Then he picked him up and held him over his head. As Tony frantically tried to get loose, he couldn’t help calculating how many pounds the Iron Man suit weighed with him in it—the man in blue must have some serious muscles.

“Who are you?” gasped Tony.

“Just a boy from Brooklyn,” the man in blue said.

“I’ve gotta know who you really are under that helmet!”

“Get used to disappointment.” The man in blue tossed Tony down to the ground and sat on him. With his shield, he hit the release on Tony’s helmet, and when the helmet opened up, he tossed it away. 

Helmetless, Tony braced himself for the impact of the man’s shield. “Kill me quickly,” he said.

The man shook his head. “I’d never destroy a superhero like yourself. But, since I can’t have you following me either--” He smashed the edge of his shield into Tony’s arc reactor. In a flash of blue light, the reactor broke. The suit was useless.

The man in blue ran off in the direction that Loki had gone with Bruce and Peggy. With the suit out of commission, Tony didn’t even try to follow him. He just watched as the man raced away and disappeared into the distance.


	5. Chapter 5

Loki was hurrying along a narrow path in the mountains with Bruce and Peggy when he looked behind him. To his surprise, the man in blue was approaching.

Loki turned to Bruce. “Catch up with us quickly.”

Bruce looked concerned. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Finish him, finish him,” Loki said. “Your way.”

“Oh good, my way,” Bruce said. He thought about that for a minute. “Wait, do you really mean my way? If I did it my way I wouldn’t have to turn into the Hulk, and somebody else would take care of—”

“I mean the Hulk, you imbecile!” Loki interrupted. “Turn into the Hulk, hide behind that boulder, and in a few minutes the man in blue will come running around the bend. The minute he comes into view, smash him!”

“Okay, that is so wrong on so many levels,” Bruce said. “I don’t want to fight any more of your enemies. I’m sick of it. You’re just using me to get to the Hulk.”

“Shut up and do as I say!” Loki shrieked. “This brainwashing is wearing off faster by the minute!” 

Bruce shook his head and took his position behind the boulder Loki had pointed out.

The man in blue headed up the mountain path, listening carefully for signs of anyone who might be lying in ambush. He heard nothing, so he continued on around a large boulder.

In the middle of the path, standing absolutely still, stood a worried-looking man in a purple shirt. It was Bruce.

“I didn’t have to meet you like this,” Bruce said. “I could have turned into the Hulk and ambushed you. You wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

“I believe you,” the man in blue said. “So what happens now?”

“Well, if I’ve gotta turn into the Hulk and fight somebody, at least I want it to be as fair as it gets,” Bruce said. “No tricks. Skill against skill alone.”  


The man in blue thought about that. “You mean, you’ll turn into the Hulk, and I’ll be ready for you with my shield, and we’ll try to kill each other like civilized people?”

“I could have killed you already,” Bruce said.

The man in blue nodded. “Fair enough. Frankly, I think the odds are slightly in your favor at hand fighting.”

“It’s not my fault I’m the Strongest Avenger,” Bruce said. “I don’t even exercise!”

Before the eyes of the man in blue, Bruce grew huge and green, his purple shirt ripping to shreds, his pants stretching. He rushed towards the man in blue, who dodged out of his way.

It became a game of tag among the boulders of the path. The man in blue didn’t want to get close enough for the Hulk to smash him. He was waiting for an opportunity.

“You’re quick,” the Hulk growled.

“Good thing, too,” the man in blue panted, somersaulting out of the Hulk’s reach.

The Hulk went after him. The man in blue ducked around a shelf of rock. The Hulk followed. They were in a canyon.

“Why you carry shield?” the Hulk growled. 

“They’re terribly useful,” the man in blue called over his shoulder. “I think everyone will be using them in the future.”

As the man in blue looked ahead, he saw that the Hulk had chased him into a box canyon. There was no way out. Turning, he held his shield at the ready. The Hulk advanced.

“You give Hulk a lot of trouble,” he said.

“Why is that, do you think?” The man in blue spoke confidently. With his right hand he fished for something in his pocket.

“Hulk usually smash crowds of aliens. Different fighting just one.”

As the Hulk prepared to strike, the man in blue pulled a small glowing screen out of his pocket. A voice came from the screen. 

“Hey big guy,” the voice said. “Sun’s getting real low.”

The Hulk squinted at the screen. There was a red-haired woman, talking in a soothing voice. “Sun’s getting low,” she said again.

The Hulk turned. He shuddered. He punched his fists against the side of the box canyon. Then he fell to the ground, shrinking as he went.

The man in blue waited. The Hulk finished turning into Bruce and lay on the ground, exhausted.

“You look like you could use a nap,” the man in blue said. “In the meantime, rest well…and dream of red-haired women.”

He dashed around Bruce and was gone before Bruce could see which direction he had headed.

* * * * *

Alexander Pierce, with a large team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, was on the hunt. He had followed the trail of Peggy’s captors as far as the spot where the man in blue had fought Iron Man.

“According to my data,” Pierce said, looking at scans of the area, “there was an extended fight. It ranged all over. They were both superheroes.”

“Who won?” asked his right-hand man, a doctor named Zola. “How did it end?”

“The loser hauled his suit out of the dirt and flew away,” Pierce said. He pointed to a trail made up of several pairs of footprints. “The winner followed those footprints toward Guilder.”

“Shall we track them both?” Zola asked.

Pierce shook his head. “The loser is nothing. Only Agent Carter matters. Clearly this was all planned by enemies of S.H.I.E.L.D. We have to be ready for whatever lies ahead.”

“Could this be a trap?” Zola inquired.

Pierce headed for his helicopter. “I always think everything could be a trap,” he said. “That’s why I’m still alive.”

* * * * *

On the top of a high hill, Loki was sitting in a relaxed fashion having a picnic. Well, not quite relaxed. He still had Peggy Carter to worry about. But she was tied up, and he had a dagger in one hand.

The man in blue came running down the path. He slowed at the sight of Loki and Peggy.

“So!” Loki said to the man, holding his dagger close to Peggy’s throat. “It is down to you, and it is down to me.”

The man in blue nodded, approaching slowly.

“If you wish her dead, by all means keep moving forward.” Loki fixed the man in blue with a sinister smile.

“Let me explain,” the man said.

“There’s nothing to explain,” Loki said. “You’re trying to kidnap what I’ve rightfully stolen. I am Loki of Jotunheim, and I am not used to having my will crossed!”

“Maybe we can come to an arrangement?” the man in blue suggested, palms out in token of peace. He stepped closer.

“You’re going to kill her!” Loki snapped, pressing the dagger against Peggy’s throat. Her face was white, but she didn’t make a sound. “No. There will be no arrangement.”

“But if there can be no arrangement, then we can’t settle this,” the man said.

“I’m afraid so,” Loki said. “I’m no match for your brute strength, and you’re no match for my wily brain.”

“You’re that good at tricks?” the man in blue asked.

“Let me put it this way,” Loki said. “Have you heard of Hermes, the god of tricks? Puss in Boots? Houdini, the escape artist?”

“Yes.”

“Simpletons. I can see through any trick set before me. I make quite a lot of money guessing shell games. I can also play tricks the like of which you’ve never seen.”

“Really?” the man in blue said. “In that case I have just the challenge for you.”

“The winner leaves with Agent Carter?” Loki asked.

The man nodded.

“I accept,” Loki said. 

“Good,” the man said. “Then come with me.”

Loki untied Peggy’s legs and made her walk with them. They went along until they came to a huge crater. In the middle of the crater were two huge hammers, sitting on the ground.

“What’s all this?” Loki asked.

“One of these hammers is a perfectly ordinary hammer,” the man said. “Anyone can lift it. The other hammer belongs to your brother Thor.”

“Ah yes, I know that hammer,” Loki said with a grimace. “The one nobody can pick up unless they’re worthy. I see where you’re going with this.”

“Which hammer is the ordinary hammer?” the man in blue said. “The competition starts now. It ends when you pick a hammer, and we find out who is right and who doesn’t have a weapon. Then we fight.”

“That’s so simple,” Loki said. “I’ve lived in the same palace as Thor’s hammer all my life. This will be easy.”

Making sure Peggy was securely tied again so she couldn’t escape, he advanced into the crater. The two hammers sat only one yard apart from each other. Loki examined them both carefully. They looked exactly the same. The man in blue stood nearby, watching.

“You look like a strong fellow,” Loki said. “You’ve beaten Tony Stark, which means you must be incredibly strong. And you’ve beaten the Hulk, which means you must be quick enough to avoid getting smashed. If you’re so strong and quick, maybe you’re planning to take the ordinary hammer from me when I pick it up.”

“Have you made your choice?” the man asked.

“Not even remotely,” Loki said. “Because in order to know about the hammer, you must know my brother Thor. And if you know Thor, you’re probably just another one of his muscle-bound fighter friends. None of them are any good at tricks. I’ll have no problem tricking you into showing me which hammer is the ordinary one.”

“Now you're just stalling,” the man in blue said.

“You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?” Loki asked. “I know exactly which one I’m going to choose. It’s—what in the world can that be?” He pointed to something behind the man in blue.

The man in blue turned. While he wasn’t looking, Loki leaned down and tried to pick up the hammer nearest him. It didn’t budge an inch.

“What? Where? I didn’t see anything,” the man in blue said.

“Oh, well, I could have sworn I saw something,” Loki said. “No matter.”

The man in blue turned toward Loki, only to find him with a broad and evil grin.

“What’s so funny?” the man asked.

“I’ll tell you in a minute,” Loki said. “I choose—that one!” He strode over to the other hammer and picked it up.

“You lose,” the man in blue said.

“What do you mean, I lose?” Loki said. “I picked the right hammer! You’re the one who doesn’t have a weapon!” He laughed. “You fell victim to one of the classic ruses. The most famous is riffle stacking in a poker game, but only slightly less well-known is the old look-over-your-shoulder technique!” He laughed and laughed.

Suddenly, he stopped laughing. The man in blue had picked up the other hammer, Thor’s hammer, the one he thought no one but Thor could lift.

“Heimdall!” the man in blue shouted. “Open the Bifrost, and take this tricky Asgardian back home where he belongs!”

Loki gaped as rainbow light shot down from the sky. Without warning, he was whisked up into the air, back to Asgard.

Still holding Thor’s hammer, the man in blue went back to Peggy and untied her legs so she could walk.

“Who are you?” gasped Peggy. She’d heard stories about Thor’s hammer. No one else besides Thor had ever been known to lift it.

“I’m no one to be trifled with,” the man in blue said. 

“You lifted Thor’s hammer!” Peggy said.

“I brought both those hammers here myself some time ago,” the man in blue said. “I spent the last few years becoming worthy to lift Thor’s hammer.”

He hustled Peggy along the same mountain path that Loki had been following.


	6. Chapter 6

In the box canyon where the man in blue had successfully calmed the Hulk, Alexander Pierce was furious. “Someone beat the Hulk!” he said. “There will be great suffering among the enemies of S.H.I.E.L.D. if they kill Agent Carter.”

Along a rocky and mountainous stretch of road, the man in blue hurried, hustling Peggy along with him. Her hands were still firmly tied.

“Catch your breath,” the man directed her, coming to a halt.

Peggy sank down to the ground. “If you will bring me back to S.H.I.E.L.D, no harm will come to you,” she said. “I promise you.”

“And what’s that worth?” the man asked. “The promise of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent? You're not the co-director yet. Alexander Pierce and the other S.H.I.E.L.D. higher-ups know secrets beyond your clearance. Your promises are worthless if they decide to disregard them.”

“I was giving you a chance,” Peggy said, glaring at him. “No matter where you take me, Alexander Pierce and his agents will find you. There are no better searchers. They could find a single person airdropped into the Sahara Desert. You could never escape them.”

“You think your perfect dream agency will save you?” the man asked. His tone was amused, but his eyes behind the mask were serious.

“I never said it was my perfect dream agency. And yes, they will save me. That I know.”

“Oh, so S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t perfect after all?” the man asked. “You don’t agree with everything Alexander Pierce does?”

“He knows I don’t love some of the things going on there.”

“And yet you stay with the organization? You’re loyal to a fault, I see.”

“I am more loyal to the founding principles of S.H.I.E.L.D. than an assassin like yourself could ever dream,” Peggy spat. 

“Careful, Agent,” the man in blue said, the set of his jaw a warning. “Where I come from, there are penalties for lying.”

* * * * *

In the crater where the two hammers had been, Alexander Pierce examined the seal of the Bifrost on the ground. “Thor was here,” he said. “I’d bet my life on it. The man in blue must be in league with the Avengers. And the scans show me Agent Carter’s footprints. She is alive…or was, an hour ago. If she isn’t when I find her, I won’t be happy.”

He and his agents got in their helicopter again and continued searching.

* * * * *

Peggy and the man in blue had come to the top of a ravine. There was no path down, and Peggy wondered how the man in blue planned to get down there. He had jumped down that cliff and landed on his shield before, but he couldn’t do that and bring her down into the ravine also.

“We might as well rest,” the man in blue said. He untied her hands. “I’m not worried about you trying to run away at the moment.”

Peggy sat on a large rock, not taking her eyes off the man in blue. A horrible thought had occurred to her. “I know who you are,” she said. “Your cruelty reveals everything.”

The man said nothing, standing with his hands on his belt buckle, looking seriously at her.

“You’re the Winter Soldier,” Peggy said. “Admit it!”

“With pride,” he said, saluting her. “What can I do for you?”

“You can die slowly, cut into a thousand pieces!” Peggy snapped back, fire in her eyes. 

The man didn’t flinch. “That’s hardly a compliment,” he said. “What do you have against me?”

“You killed the love of my life,” Peggy said, her face set, her heart clenching with grief as it had the day she learned about Steve’s death.

“It’s possible,” the man said, looking at her with a strange intensity in his eyes. “As the Winter Soldier, I get ordered to kill a lot of people. Who was this love of your life? Another leader like Alexander Pierce? Old, rich, and conniving?”

Peggy shook her head. She didn’t want to answer the man. She didn’t want to talk about her perfect Steve to his murderer. “No,” she said at last. “A soldier. Small, skinny, and perfect. With more courage than the whole rest of the regiment put together.”

She would not cry in front of the Winter Soldier. She had to work hard to keep her voice from shaking.

“We heard word that you had captured him. The Winter Soldier never takes prisoners!”

The man looked unconcerned. He sat down against a log, stretching out his legs. “My handlers can’t afford to let me make exceptions,” he explained. “Once word leaks out that the Winter Soldier isn’t always successful, people stop being afraid of him, and then he has to run around and do actual work rounding people up instead of making them shiver in their shoes from afar.”

“You mock my pain,” Peggy cried. 

The man shrugged. “Life is pain, Agent. Anyone who says differently must have been born after the last war.”

Peggy looked away.

“I remember this soldier of yours, I think,” the man said. Peggy could hear him getting to his feet. “This would be, what, four years ago?”

Peggy nodded.

“Does it bother you to hear about it?”

“Nothing you can possibly say will upset me,” Peggy said, her jaw firm as she looked into the distance.

“He died well,” the man said. “That ought to please you. No crying or begging. He just said, ‘Please. Please, I need to live.’ I think he’s the only person who ever said ‘please’ to the Winter Soldier. I asked him what was so important. ‘The love of my life,’ he said. And then he talked about the beautiful woman who had captured his heart, a woman who knocked down a rude recruit with one punch, a woman of honor and loyalty. I assume he was talking about you. You should thank me for taking him out before he found out who you really are.” His tone had become scornful.

“And what am I?” Peggy sprang to her feet, facing him.

“He talked about your loyalty, Agent. Loyalty to truth and justice, loyalty to the little guys who were being bullied. Tell me the truth. When you found out he was dead, did you sign up to work for Pierce and his henchmen the same day, or did you wait a week out of respect for your fallen boyfriend’s principles?”

“You mocked me once,” Peggy said. “Never do it again. I died that day!” Anger blurred her vision, and as the man in blue looked off into the distance, distracted by the far-off sound of a helicopter, Peggy shoved him as hard as she could. “And you can die too, for all I care!” He staggered backwards and tumbled down the steep slope that led into the ravine.

Peggy stared after him as he rolled and tumbled, trying to stop his fall. A shout floated back to her: “I…can…do…this…all…day!”

Peggy gasped as the truth hit her. “Oh, my darling Steve, what have I done?”

Without a thought for her own safety she threw herself down after him, rolling down the steep slope at a breakneck pace. 

* * * * *

In the helicopter, Alexander Pierce peered down into the ravine. “They disappeared down there,” he shouted over the noise of the rotor blades. “Unless I’m wrong—and I’m never wrong—they’re headed towards the Leviathan base in the woods.”

* * * * *

Bruised and battered, Peggy lay still at the bottom of the ravine. The man in blue peeled himself off the ground and crawled over to her. His helmet had come off as he rolled down the slope, and although he was bigger and stronger than Peggy remembered, his honest blue eyes were Steve’s eyes.

“Can you move at all?” he asked, slipping an arm under her head, cradling her gently.

“Move? You’re alive,” Peggy breathed. “If you want I can fly!” She threw her arms around him, and with a sob, Steve buried his face in her shoulder.

When he pulled back to look at her his face was wet. “I told you I would come for you,” he said. “I still owe you a dance.”

“But how are you here? You were dead!” 

“Death can’t stop true love,” Steve said, gently stroking Peggy’s cheek with his thumb. “All it can do is delay it. Sometimes for a long, long time.” His face was very close to hers, his eyes gentle. 

“I will never doubt again,” Peggy said.

“There will never be a need.” 

And he gathered her closer in his arms and kissed her with such love and longing that Peggy felt as if the whole world had filled with sunlight.


End file.
